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24 February 2012

(above what you're seeing: first panel is Tuesday, first time in last two boss fights, so on deathwing's back and then killing him in the maelstrom... Wednesday is 4 fights, the first 4 and I happened to misunderstand what I put on my notecard about the last of those fights and so I let a wave of frost wash over me from behind and kill me so I dropped from 9th dps down to much less than I'd want while I laughed at myself for being a dumbass with another warrior who did exactly the same thing. I was with Foodis aka Rumbaloo from my guild, and he wasn't terribly upset with me for being a newb... and then last night Thursday first 2 fights in second set where I missed some mechanics and was still learning. ALL of these are essentially sight reading as I read guides that cover mechanics that will be ignored for LFR... see below. I'm not happy with my standings, I am happy with being that close to my "required dps.")

I did the Ruth thing. I went online and I researched every fight and read the written guides at icy-veins.com to make sure I wasn't a total newb... and then discovered it matters little.

see... LFR is dummied down and simplified almost to the point of specifically breeding idiots without a sense or care in the world for how real raids might work.

There is no working together. Not really. No one explains anything unless pressed or there's a wipe, which causes HUGE amounts of attrition and QQ in the raid chat, most particularly from the asshats who had no idea what to do or were ignoring what it was they were supposed to do in order to do something they believe to be more fun.

There is no sense of urgency when dealing with understanding raid mechanics. Things forgotten that will wipe you and the raid... disregarded. Steps that are urgent and required in the real raid... ignored. Any attention to mechanics seems to be in the nasty little kid with snot on his own finger pointing out that the kid across the room scratched his ass sort of a way... it's just... really ignorant and frustrating.

That said... 24 people and me are coincidentally in the same part of a phased world together and must at least keep up appearances of heading the same way and towards the same goals in a cacophony of "wtf are u doing over there?" and "get the fuck off the bloods now" (my favorite, it was an all caps raid warning. lol) and "no more dps in the back" and "we're in [insert fight here] dungeon, dumbass. wtf did u go that way 4?" and "kick Allumette for taking so much damage from the twilight" and and and... (and because in a raid there's always someone with your back, whether you like it or need it or not) "Kick Krul for having the lowest damn heals, he's complaining and he sucked compared to the others and Allumette is top 10 dps"

To my discredit, I didn't use the "button" right to save myself... I was clicking just as Deadly Boss Mods told me to... it's wrong. So I started clicking just before it told me to. It was still wrong. By the time I figured out what I needed to do the fight was almost over. THE ENTIRE TIME I WAS IN VENT ASKING A FRIEND TO TELL ME IF HE KNEW EXACTLY WHEN TO HIT IT BECAUSE WHILE I DIDN'T KNOW THE EXACT MOMENT YET, I COULD TELL I WAS FUCKING WRONG! It's not like it ACTUALLY matters anyway, see... because while in regular 10man I would be dead and the raid would just have to do without me, in LFR it's so watered down that I still have 1/4 of my health left and plenty of rage to burn against the boss in Enraged Regeneration up and earn it back! Also to my discredit (hence the not needing someone to have my back) likely a lot of that top 10 dps was because so many people were quitting, dropping and using the mechanic correctly which drops them from dps for like 10 seconds. LOL

Anyway. I learned many things, one of them is that LFR is like LFG on crack. The asshats who rule LFG and make it almost intollerable in their egocentrism, miopia and pedantic elitism are multiplied and amplified in LFR until it's a breeding ground of puss infested disease ridden nasty little children with swamp ass, nasty mouths and greedy groping masturbatory hands who only know what they need to know to crank their dps or follow the leader through the fights doing whatever it is they wanted to do anyway. If it were any harder they'd complain about it from /Trade where they live like the "trip trapping across my bridge" sorts of trolls from the grimmest of fairy tales.

I really really wanted to like the feature as a way that we could individually hang out and have fun. I wanted it to be my "favorite game's" answer to Rift having all this amazing content you can step into and out of again and control your gaming experience.

I really really do not like it. I'm stuck raiding the old way if I want to enjoy it and am grateful that I only ever have to LFR one time a week for 8 bosses.

I am now VERY clear why the best players have closed the option to themselves by the end of Tuesday evenings everywhere... come in pre-formed groups as big as they can make them and then drop immediately following whatever in the cycle might be their 8th fight... since you can't even roll on loot after you've killed that boss once this week.

WHY?! You protest? Because the dickshit greedy diseased little children of whores who populate the game would only kick you and take the best loots by way of Master Looter anyway. Yep. Blizz couldn't leave the gamers with any control because they'll drive a Mack truck through the smallest loophole anyway, and this is about virtual loots, therefore egos will be mashed and much fighting and GM mail will ensue.

One in 10 classes x 3 or 4 specs each x 8 bosses dropping 4 pieces of loot at the end of each fight where you can be kicked for almost any reason... and those are your chances at loots that are only marginally better than what you can earn alone and aren't as good as the pieces you can earn in a group of 10 facing the real fights and mechanics... and you can only roll on loot dropped once on each boss no matter what you do every week.

And I share a token with DRUIDS and HUNTERS... godsfrackingdangit anyway!

lol

peace... and if not peaceful then kill 'em all... somehow they deserve it, you'll just have to trust me on this... come on, this is World of Warcraft.

22 February 2012

As a Fury warrior I'm somewhat tied to having my feet on the ground or being able to leap or charge back into combat quickly. Every second I'm not hitting something, preferably many somethings, I'm suffering DPS which means I'm not doing my job.

It's flatly amazing the number of asshats who will say, after a pull in which even they were tanking and the mobs weren't anywhere near the tank or melee DPS, "In your gear score you should be pulling much more DPS." *

Hey you... suck it. If I could stand way over there and nuke the boss without moving I would be able to drink your blood for breakfast and still eat the rest of your DPS for lunch. Don't talk to ME about iLevel and DPS and what I should be doing. Because I've done it, and I know. 26k DPS without reforging, and that on a single target BOSS... one with mechanics that require me to run back and return over and over so I'm losing just a little bit of what might be closer to 30k. YOU only managed 22k and the mage was down around 11k.

Yeah. I hate messy pulls.

I define a "messy pull" as any pull in which there are two or more tanks, or rather, by definition, two or more characters with as much threat generated on a different target than the tank.

Some of this can be avoided by letting the tank get aggro after the first messy pull. Let them build threat and DONT HIT ANYTHING FOR FUCKS SAKE!

Some of this can be avoided by marking the pull in kill order. I miss Rift having a 12345 targeting system... and still. MOST people understand SKULL first X is second and MOON or TRIANGLE are, in order, SHEEP or FROG... lots of folks use SQUARE as TRAP... sigh.

And most importantly... MOST importantly... if you have a tank in a random dungeon who is not pulling enough threat and you're not the sort who can let your penis length suffer a virtual loss, then whatever you do run towards the melee DPS most likely to save your stupid ass. I can self heal and do a tremendous lot of damage in doing so every time I kill something, so why don't you bring it to me and we'll practice working as a group before I find you in the LFR tool and have to out you as a lousy player?

The link above is to Thoryana's Run To The Tank, an old WoW related song... if you can't run to the tank at least run to someone less squishy than YOU are. ugh.

lol

above are some dps captures and the newest view of Allumette with all her "now you can raid" gears on. I'm suffering some from a lack of haste and must keep my hit at about 18%... other than that... WOOT... I finally got the trinket I needed!

And twice I was at the % of DPS for the group that makes me feel good. See, the NUMBER is secsy... the % of damage done per fight is OMG SHE'S NOT WEARING A SHIRT hawt. lol

In a standard 5 man dungeon the tank is going to do a real lot of damage... that's how they keep things focused on them these days. Our job is to do even MORE damage because we have nothing else to do, or at least aren't being hit back... and so the perfect distribution should be something like 30/30/30/10 to the Tank as a token.

When I'm over 35% then I know I'm doing FURY a service and proving it's not a failed spec. LOL

By the same token, in a 10 man fight with 6 DPS and 2 tanks I'd expect my damage to be no LESS than 15% or I'd be depressed, and with only 1 tank I'd have to be closer to 25% to feel properly like a showoff. 13/13/13/13/13/13/10/10 OR 15/15/15/15/15/15/15/10

remember I said I never know my minimums... that's because I always shoot for more.

kill 'em all and let their Gods sort them out... and play WoW in the meantime. LOL

*Ruth's hall of shame: episode ONE COMING SOON

a quick recognition of the asshats in the world who require recognition in order to be avoided

20 February 2012

I did a piece and clipped some images once of a comic strip I loved called By Way of Booty Bay... a strip obviously a play on WoW and ideas from WoW. My own historical images are gone now, as are images from my computer. I very unthoughtfully deleted them thinking they'd be available online forever.

Two of my absolute favorites are now missing. One was a comic about a married/dating couple that opened in a battleground with the husband leaping onto a rock to "finish" his opponent only to miss the fact that a warlock behind him was loading him up with DOTs so that as he pulled back his weapon and prepared to strike he was just dead and trying to figure out what happened. He tells his wife and she laughs, explaining that she once left a battlefield and had time to take a shower and make a sandwich before keeling over dead at the table as a result of DOTs.

The other was a description of the various Horde battleground leaders (see below, I found that one and am looking for the other) and how they would hock their particular warfronts to combatants. It ended with a joke about pwning newbs in Arathi. That one was, sadly, in the telling and in the moment.

The strip is gone. I'm not sure if it was swallowed in the ether intentionally or if it's just quite accidentally vanished one frame at a time because the creator died or is in some other way incapable of paying to maintain an online presence. I'm saddened because it's really really amazingly clever, fairly well drawn (I've never really been an avid connoisseur of comic art) and is exceptionally funny. The above were the few of note left by using the waybackmachine to capture some images from this time last year.

How WoW touches us even outside the confines of the game. Below are links to some other real life locations where WoW is alive in different people's lives... outside the game. Most of them have moved on or have other projects and still maintain their old locations just for those of us who still love the game to discover and enjoy.

19 February 2012

See... I said, "I needs to upgrades my helm. Anyone want to queue with me for a quick farm of the instance where it drops?"

The answers were "Where does it drop?" and "Which helm?" blah blah

Well... when I told them I was whispered the low % chance of drop by not one but 2 players and was told no-thanks, there's nothing for me by some in open chat.

Ok, I need to step back.

I'm an optimist. This is viewed as meaning I'm stoopid and slow bus special by most people who play video games. I'm used to this and used to having the universe come out to save me.

For one thing I'm actually very smart and it works to my advantage for them to think I'm not, so I let them underestimate me. For another, I'm stupid lucky... like fancy limo bus ride from the Goddess in Green lucky.

So... I queue and wait 15 minutes or so for it to come up. We kill a guy, go to another shrine and kill a chica and I have more than 21k dps WITHOUT the helm upgrade, mind you... and then we're at that boss and I say to myself "Ok, this is your one shot at it... don't mess this up." And we kick him in the nuts with only 3 time resets... and I get my helm AND it's not looted out from under me by a ninja or the DK tank for "offspec" or something and less than 2 minutes after it's mine it's got the arcanum, the meta-gem and the other gem it needs.

Earlier today I had an awesome run with a group where the tank died on the last boss (the one who has my trinket, sadly... and didn't drop it) and rather than fall apart the mage covered in mobs brings them to me when I say to do it in chat and we're murdering stuff so fast I'm self healing with a healer hiding under the boss and our hunter, a secsy guy who is in my guild, cranks his buffed dps to something like 150000 dps (remember, this means he's doing 150,000 Damage Per Second with a special buff put on him.)

This, my pessimistic asshat NOT friends in gaming, is what people who want to win get for sticking with it and focusing on what they CAN do instead of what the guide says is supposed to happen and what they HAVE to do.

I dont know what the minimum dps output is for any raid I've ever done... I only know I give my max every time.

I only had to learn one mechanic the hard way... well... two... one on trash leading to him because I had no heals, so really not my problem.

At one point in the fight it's the responsibility of the raid to kill monsters that will spawn in a half circle facing the boss before they can empower the boss' hammer and the first time I spun around and my visual frame of reference had changed, so my assigned target ran over me before I started killing him. It didn't happen again.

There's another point after the first transition when the boss will put "seeds" that hatch monsters on each of the raid members. The "hatching" does area of effect damage that's quite broad, so it needs to be left far from the raid. There was a misunderstanding of my needs born from the fact that I didn't know them and so the first time I left the seed too close by necessity and the next time I was able to articulate that to do my job AND leave the seed farther away I needed to be in a different position.

So... yeah. Cool that 5 iLevel points and 3 pieces of appropriate gear (one being an appropriately leveled weapon) under what I need to get into the higher raids with the guild I was able to learn on the fly and perform to my own expectations.

Woot for me!

Still some concern about the definition of "casual guild" as it applies to raiding.

Last night some friend of the GM was being a shit about the learning curve, something I've had to deal with from regular pugs and from guildies for two years and all in all our GM did a good job handling it. Better than I might have.

And I'm still left with the burning question I've answered in my blog both ways.

Can a casual social/leveling guild also house within it's ranks a raiding group?

I believe it can... I still and firmly believe that the social/leveling aspect of a guild is unharmed by raiding and that the raiding part of a guild needs the relaxed and casual goodnatured chat and energy of a social/leveling family of friends who enjoy the same game. The inherently competitive and driven nature of raiding tends to seem, on the face of it, to exclude the sunny and rambling nature of a guild based on being friends and having fun. I would say that when the raiding becomes less sunny then it becomes unworthy of participation. It's the rambling, free-form and sometimes disorganized nature of a social guild that can be murderous to the raiding aspect and that has to be addressed.

A casual guild is unharmed by raiding. Raiding is devastated by casual attitude and application.

My suggestion to our GM has to be that he does what Matthew and myself did for Decadence and even for our guild on Cenarius... a fun raid starts with preparation, reliable players and communication. Set the rules straight from the start.

THIS iLevel is required. There is no negotiation.

THIS site is where your RL goes for his notes and strategies, read it or suffer the minimal instruction you're going to receive because you're expected to be prepared.

BE prepared. This includes enchants, foods, flasks and proper gear for your role. It also includes knowing the fight or knowing about it at the very least.

BE ON TIME or you'll be replaced or left out. How rude of you to expect that 9 other people think you're the most important person on the planet and will wait for you.

Raiding takes a different type of personality from meandering around the countryside on your quest for achievements and farming materials. A raiding personality is also less individual and miopic than the PvP mindset and firm requirement that there can be only one. Raiders show up to work as a team and to achieve their goals as a team, and that can be born from a family of loving hilarity and generosity that is found in a social/leveling guild more effectively than from a dog-eat-dog competitive raiding guild where the initial mindset is one of selfish absorption and then has to mature to a group setting.

Above are Allu's numbers clocked during a week.

iLevel 375 still needs helm, new weapon and a new trinket... preferably the one that the ninja looting little asshole druid took from me, but I'll never see that one again. I just have to see it drop again and win it this time. LOL grrr...